Week 1 of "Stay-cation"

Week #1 of our "Stay-cation" was FABULOUS! We had such a great time! I truly felt like I was on vacation. We toured the city of Seattle and even though Jeremy and I had done mostly all of the things we did, it was just nice to do it as a family and have some fun! We ate out everyday. We bought little things at the gift shops for ourselves. We took tons of pictures. We got out the brochures. We "traveled" into the city 3 times. We spent too much money. We did it all! Here's a glimpse...and I mean a glimpse, of the good times we had!

Science Center

Harbor Cruise

Aquarium

Waterfront

EMP (Experience Music Project) and SFM (Science Fiction Museum)

Monorail

Rides At Seattle Center

Space Needle (2 times!)

Alki Beach

Woodland Park Zoo

A little R&R= Chicken Coop and Swimming!

I have so many pictures, I wish I could post them all!

"Stay-cation" Sneak Peak

So, I've got a lot of posting to do in the near future, but I wanted to give you a little glimpse of what we've been up to...You see, Jeremy has two weeks off which started on Monday (the 7th). We thought about going to Disneyland but decided it was too expensive right now. Then, we decided to go to Idaho to visit my mom and see some sights but changed our minds again because we realized my mom would be coming here this summer anyways and there's not a ton to do that the kids would enjoy. SO, we finally decided on just staying home. BUT, instead of just being vegetables and doing nothing for 2 weeks, we would vacation in Seattle! So, that's what we're doing. It's only day 2 and I've got a ton of pictures! When I have more time I plan on showing them off, but until then... Day #1 (yesterday) of our "stay-cation" was going to the Seattle Science Center and visiting the Space Needle. Here's Collin at the Science Center in their play area. He LOVED driving this little car!

Stay tuned for more! Today's outing was a harbor cruise off the Seattle Waterfront, the Aquarium, and dinner at the Spaghetti Factory! We've got LOTS more planned as well! It should be fun!

A Troll, New Pets, And A Birthday Boy!

Despite our very sickly month, we've managed to do and have a few fun experiences! I've been sooo lazy about blogging these past couple weeks. There's always something more important that needs done...like the fact that I have a HUGE pile of clothes on my bed right now that need to be put away and it's almost 10:00p.m.! Oh well. I had to get updated, so here's what we've been up to lately.

The whole month of May was a sick mess! Everyone got sick at one point and poor Parker got sick twice. BUT, despite all of that I managed to get Parker POTTY TRAINED!!!!!! Yippeeeee!!! Yeah, I'm a little excited. He's doing amazing too! Does EVERYTHING in the potty. It's great.

A couple Saturdays ago I came home to these lovely things in my garage. The bunny was planned and we actually went and got her together as a family later that night, but these little chicks...not really appreciated! I was in shock. I hate birds! BUT, after a while I warmed up to the fact that we had them (but did not warm up to them!). I've only touched one of them once. The other day one of them jumped/flew out of the box and I was so terrified to get it I just let it roam around the garage until Jeremy got home. I love our bunny though. Her name is Ella and she's so cute! Yeah, two different pets in one day. We're really not trying to start a farm here, really. One bonus is the fresh eggs! Right?

Our latest fun was this past weekend. We decided to go do some sight seeing in Seattle. Jeremy and I have both lived here our entire lives and have never seen this huge troll! I mean, how can you miss it, right? Well, we did. It's living under a bridge, in an area called Fremont in Seattle. It's the same troll you seen in the movie "Ten Things I Hate About You". Anyways, it was kinda fun to see and walk around on. I was surprised at how many tourists showed up! At least two big buses with crazy picture-taking tourists arrived while we were there.

On our way home from the Troll, we stopped at GasWorks Park. It's a well-known park that people flock to, to watch fireworks on the 4th. We've seen it from a distance, but in all the years neither of us had ever stopped. SO, in our last sight seeing attempt we stopped and took some pictures and let the kids play. It's got a great view of the lake and some pretty neat old gas chambers (or something like that...really I have no idea what they're called or what I'm talking about, but they have to have something to do with the name of the park, right?)

And, lastly, it was Jeremy's birthday yesterday! Jeremy had to go into work, so we woke up and celebrated a little before he left. Jeremy LOVES ice cream cake, so I got him one and he blew out his 30 candles and we sang Happy Birthday and gave him a few gifts. The kids liked it because I let them eat cake for breakfast. Yum! When Jeremy got home from work we headed out to Mexican food with his family. It was so good! We enjoyed our meal and cupcakes that I brought, then headed to Target to spend his gift card that his sister got him. He didn't waste any time. All in all, it was a great day for him. Happy Birthday, Jer! We love you!

I totally need a new camera! If these pictures are lousy, sorry!

SOOOOO CLOSE!

I'm just happy to announce that we are soooo darn close to having a fully potty trained boy! He did great yesterday and has been doing overall very good this past week. He did his first #2 last night in the potty and I'm hoping this is the beginning of wonderful things to come! I'll be so, so happy when I can officially say that I only have one child in diapers. I can already see the difference in my diaper pail. I've had many less runs to the garbage can outside. It's great!!! Keep it up, buddy!

Our Week...

What a week! Since last Friday, it's been quite a rollercoaster of events. On Friday, April 30th, we celebrated Parker's 3rd birthday! He's just growing up so fast. We had a fun pizza night with Jeremy's family, making our very own homemade pizzas. Jeremy was our chef and made all the dough, assembled, and cooked our pizzas. They turned out great! Parker wanted a fireman/firetruck themed party, so we went with it and had firehats and party blowers, and of course decorations. We did cupcakes and ice cream and opened presents. It was fun! THEN, on Saturday we continued the celebration by having his "friend" party. We still did the firetruck theme and had a cool firetruck cake that my mom-in-law helped me make. We had 6 little friends over and we had fun playing a game, they colored, and I let them just go crazy and play as well. I mean, they're 3, right? The kids loved the cake and everyone wanted the ladder. Silly :) Parker loved all his gifts and loved having his buddies over for awhile. SO, our weekend was full of partying (and a baptism Saturday moring). Sunday I had Sharing Time in primary, so I got to finish planning that on Saturday night. Kind of a busy day...Anyways, by monday I was sick. Literally. SOOO sick. I felt horrible. My body hurt, my throat hurt, my head hurt, everything hurt! And, to top it off Collin was sick, with a runny nose and cough and Jeremy was starting to feel it too. Luckily, Jeremy felt well enough to save the day and be home from work and let me rest! What a man! Tuesday I still felt sick, but a tiny bit better. My throat was KILLING me! That was the worst part. Well, tuesday was also our anniversary. So, for our 8 year anniversary we took the kids out for a good old Red Robin dinner. I was kind of miserable from being sick, but it was so nice to be out and get some really good food(even though I could barely swallow!) and spend time with my family. I loved it. The rest of the week consisted of me still being sick, Samantha getting sick and having a 102 degree fever, Parker getting sick with a cold, and Collin still sick with a cold, and Jeremy getting worse. I ended up at the doctor, thinking for sure I had strep but I didn't. That was good, but I hate it when you go to the doctor and you're sent home with nothing. I kinda feel dumb. Oh well. I also ended up losing my voice. Completely. I was at a whisper, which makes it so hard to get through to your kids! That lasted about 3 days. Not fun. So, now we're to yesterday...Mother's Day. I woke up still sick! Everyone was still sick, which meant no church. But, Jeremy, again saves the day and takes care of me, making me breakfast in bed. The kids got their gifts and cards and brought them to me in bed and I ate and opened my gifts. It was wonderful. After that Jeremy let me sleep in even longer while he took care of the kids. By noon though, Collin was getting worse and looking really bad. He had a 102.6 fever and looked horrible. So, I took him in to Urgent Care and got him checked out. I mean, after being sick for 10 days, you'd think he'd be getting better. It turns out he has an ear infection and sinus infection. After spending almost 4 hours at the docs and pharmacy I got home to my family to finish out my mother's day with them. We ended up taking a walk (Collin was feeling a bit more perky after meds and a nap!) along the river and eating a roast beef dinner. It was a crazy sunday, but a nice, relaxing one as well. Now it's monday night and Collin is still not doing so good. He's been on antibiotics for 24 hours now and still has a fever and looks pretty sick. We'll see what tomorrow brings. Luckily, everyone else is looking up, even me. I look forward to a more "normal" week this week. I missed so much last week, I'm feeling a little out of it! Here's a few pictures from Parker's friend birthday party!